To begin this post, I’ll quote Maxon here from the Elite, “I had a thought.” Or maybe a few. Yeah, that’s more accurate when it comes to my sort of pondering. So, in terms of King Clarkson, as a fandom, I think we can collectively agree that had he been alive, he would have made life really difficult for America and Maxon as a married couple. Although, I feel like we never fully let ourselves imagine the extent it could go to; sure, some fanfics delve into those realms of possibilities but it’s only surface level. Look, I’m definitely not shaming anyone, I didn’t really think of this topic too often or that much, either, until now given how terrible it is but I just wanted to open up the conversation to see the community’s thoughts.
First of all, I really think that getting to the wedding itself would have been a challenge especially if Clarkson continuously pushed the matter of those New Year’s announcements on America. There would have been literally no peace after the engagement with that going on. I think that he would’ve also harassed Maxon often about the final choice, making his displeasure known at every impasse and at the slightest mistake that sent him raging, he would cane him more harshly. All to get his anger out at Maxon’s supposed incompetence, his future daughter-in-law, and all her flaws and mistakes, too. I bet that he would also try to keep his son as busy as possible to keep him and America separated and in addition, intimidate her as much as he could every spare moment.
Now, with the case of America’s marriage to Maxon, that would bring about a whole new set of problems. I’m sure that he’d try to put off stepping down for as many years as he could but even with their ascension, he would keep a tight leash on Maxon. It wouldn’t be surprising if he made threats to his son about his wife’s safety and that would make Maxon heel every time just to keep the peace, making his decisions stringent and very much not his own. They’d be spineless. Essentially he’d be a king with no power, a puppet leader being pulled by strings. Oh, and the abuse would continue being bad, if not worse, in regards to where America would be involved with making certain changes. Clarkson would likely be enraged at her being more included in such decision-making because ain’t no way that Maxon wouldn’t do exactly that. He’s done that sort of thing in the books, this wouldn’t be a new thing to see during their marriage.
Then, we get to the next gen. Of course, America and Maxon would still be monitored for their procreating abilities but I feel like this would be some next level spying and maybe even some sort of intervention on Clarkson’s part if the baby was revealed to not be a boy. We know of Amberly’s miscarriages and I’m sure we all believe that there is still something suspicious about them despite the explanation we got about the toxins because of where she lived. There is speculation here and there that Clarkson may have poisoned her to induce miscarriages if the babies were girls and if this was something he did to his own wife, he definitely wouldn’t have been above doing it again to his daughter-in-law. Given that we also know that he abused Maxon after he found out about his affair which resulted in an illegitimate daughter and that he was cheating on Amberly, who knows what he would have done to his son this time around if it was uncovered that he poisoned America? This man is shown to go to great lengths to keep something incriminating against him quiet, whether that be family or not. But let’s move on from that.
Say Clarkson didn’t care whether they had a bunch of children that included daughters and sons, he would still likely prefer that the first born is a son but more so, he would be concerned with the fact that the next heir should be a male child as by tradition. The grandchild he’d want to lead the country after Maxon as hereditary heir to the throne would be any boy and that would possibly translate to favoritism bias based on gender. If the twins were still born in this alternate scenario, the likely version of events to follow would be that Ahren would be favored and Eadlyn would be disowned as heir even though she’s older. Actually, I don’t believe that it would just be the case with Ahren being the favorite, I’m sure that any of America and Maxon’s sons would be liked better by their grandfather, meaning Kaden and Osten would all be better treated by Clarkson than Eadlyn, just Ahren would get more attention because he would be the crown prince. Because Eadlyn is a princess, by this timeline, her fate would be to marry off to foreign royalty as per Illéan tradition and though I have a feeling that America and Maxon would have been able to abolish that law even with Clarkson around, he would oppose this action greatly. It would make him resent his granddaughter severely, neglecting her when it comes to spending time with all his grandchildren and in the case that he got involved with training her as Illéa’s first queen regnant, he would take every opportunity to belittle her, the situation becoming reminiscent to that of Maxon’s days as prince minus the canings. Anyways, in the other scenario where he got his way and Eadlyn wasn’t made heir but rather Ahren, Maxon would have had extensive arguments with his father about it regardless but caved. Although, he would have fought Clarkson in terms of marrying her off and tried to still set up a way for his daughter to have a role in the monarchy when she was older. Otherwise, Eadlyn’s childhood would have still been rough with Clarkson around and similarly he would be displeased with her but on a lesser scale because there was a crown prince and not a crown princess to take over.
In short, Clarkson would have made America and Maxon’s lives a living hell along with that of their daughter’s. I’m just happy we don’t have that as canon in the books. It’s for the best that Clarkson was dead when Maxon married America in the end because I think there would have been twice as many obstacles for them to face and even though Maxon would have been married to the love of his life, he would be unhappy and unnecessarily pressured due to the constant circumstances of his wife and children being under threat by his tyrant of a father. Let me know what you think. Thanks for reading.
